Man found guilty of creating sexualised deepfake images of Brisbane students

Antonio Rotondo has been found guilty of stalking, distributing intimate images and distributing child exploitation material. Using a website, he digitally altered publicly available photographs of several women and girls to remove their clothing or replace it with lingerie. What's next? Rotondo was remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing hearing tomorrow. A man who created and distributed sexualised deepfake images of current and former Brisbane high school students and staff has been found guilty of more than a dozen charges. This included 11 counts of stalking, five counts of distributing intimate images and one count of distributing child exploitation material. After deliberating for several hours, a jury returned a guilty verdict on all charges. During his trial, the court heard details about the 56-year-old's offending, which took place in September 2023 whilst he was living in the Philippines. Using a website, he digitally altered publicly available photographs of several women and girls to remove their clothing or replace it with lingerie. Rotondo then sent the images, including one of a 13-year-old girl, via email to her school and various other recipients. He also emailed similar altered photographs of women who had participated in a Brisbane Fashion Week event, to another woman involved in the same event. More than a dozen images included in the emails were also uploaded to a website. Rotondo was arrested a month later after he travelled to the Gold Coast. Rotondo told police it was 'funny' In his police interview, which was played to the jury, he admitted to sending the emails and uploading the images online. When asked why he did it, he told officers because it was "funny" and described it as a "hobby". He also claimed you "cannot stop deepfakes" and so long as the software to create it exists, they were "acceptable to a percentage of community". In order to find him guilty of some of the charges, the jury needed to determine the offending caused distress to the complainants. Rotondo, who represented himself during the trial, told jurors during his closing address there was reasonable doubt some had suffered serious emotional harm as they had never viewed them. "They didn't see that image so it's not possible for them to have a psychological problem with that image," he said. Rotondo also said there was a lack of evidence he controlled the website. The jury heard numerous complainants describe the impact of the images in police interviews, with one woman saying she was "very distressed". Another woman told police she felt "extremely violated" and her "trust is gone" in general society. "I've since significantly self-censored how I show up, how I present publicly," she said. Rotondo was remanded in custody ahead of his sentencing hearing tomorrow.